Hopes and Dreams: 20 weeks

This week is a little bit of a blur. Last week at this time I was getting ready for the big Thanksgiving gathering at our house. We had a total of 11 people - Andy, me, Lily, Taylor, Sam, Vicki, Auntie Shari, Grandma Elaine - and the night before, I found out that my Uncle Al, his wife Joyce and my cousin Robbie were also coming. We don't have a big house so it was cozy. =) It's pretty rare these days for mom, Shari and Al to be in one place so that was nice. Robbie and I were the only cousins! Jon, Tim and Mike and my sister were all with their spouses' families. Chrissy is in Iraq and Kyle is living in Colorado. We got the news that my cousin Tim and his wife Janice are expecting their first baby in June! Woo-hoo! All the food turned out great - there were lots of compliments and no complaints. I thought the turkey tasted good and they loved my stuffing and sweet potatoes!!! (See recipes in earlier posts) It was such a nice day. One of the things I love about the Thanksgiving holiday is the simplicity. There are no gifts, no decorations per se, no egg hunts, etc. It's just about being together and focusing on our blessings. Love it.

Andy had the entire weekend off and it was wonderful. We stayed close to home and did lots of family bonding. =) He did go to the Vikes game Sunday night with friends. The Vikings crushed da Bears so he really enjoyed the game.

Lily is doing great. One of the big things happening in her life (that I keep forget to talk about) is that she's not napping anymore. This is a big event in our lives! She was (and is) at that hard transition point where if she does nap she has a difficult time getting to sleep at night, but if she skips her nap she's a zombie by dinner time and not very pleasant to be around! On days when she would nap it would sometimes take her until 10:00 or later to fall asleep at night and it just felt cruel to make her lay there forever. On the other hand, I can hardly stand her when she's a total crab from lack of nap. But for the most part she's weaned from her nap and it's getting better. Occasionally after a week or so of no nap she's pretty tired and we'll do a "catch up" nap. The hardest part about it for me at this point is that I don't ever get a nap during the day anymore. Taylor takes a couple naps during the day and when both of them were ever asleep at the same time I would try to catch a little nap myself. But those days appear to be over. Sometimes the days are looooooooong and I could fall asleep sitting up. But I still believe people are praying for me! Because there is Supernatural Power at work here. There's no other explanation for the fact that I'm not passed out on the couch!!! =)

Taylor is doing great too. He's still up in the night more frequently than I'd like, but I keep reminding myself this is a short phase in the grand scheme of things and just try to enjoy our middle-of-the-night bonding time. We've tried rice cereal a couple times and it's going okay. The most recent time was last night and he seemed to be spitting it back out at me. So I'm not sure what to think. I'll keep exposing him to it and hope he gets the hang of it. Some people say that it'll help him sleep longer at night but so far it isn't making any difference on the nights he eats it. Bummer! He's a happy kid and he really loves his mommy. His little legs start a-kickin' when he sees me coming and it melts my heart. It's so hard to believe that I've only "known" him for 20 weeks but I would do anything for him and I love him as big as the sky!

He's getting so good with his hands - he reaches and grabs things and loves to put stuff in his mouth. Total opposite of Lily - she almost never put anything in her mouth - including food! We had to put each individual cheerio in her mouth. =) That seems forever ago now! Anyway, even though Taylor has only been reaching and grabbing for a week or two, I almost can't remember what it was like before he could!